And So It Was To Be
by Moon Destiny
Summary: Naraku will do anything to get what he wants. Written for 31 days comm at livejournal.


Kagome watched the blood trickle slowly from her index finger

Kagome watched the blood trickle slowly from her index finger. She was confused as to what could've pricked her. She didn't really feel whatever it was until it stung her and by then it was too late. Whatever it was though, it gave her a bad feeling. The vision behind her eyes started wavering and she started breathing heavily.

She slowly slid off Inuyasha's back and the half-demon stopped suddenly and looked back at her annoyingly.

"Hey, Kagome, what's the matter now? What do you need-" Kagome's knees gave under her and she slumped down onto the road, Inuyasha's sentence long forgotten.

"KAGOME?"

Miroku and Sango, along with Shippo and Kilala, came up to them.

"What happened to Kagome, Inuyasha?" Miroku looked quizzically at the young girl's body lying limply.

"How should I know? She got off me and was looking weird."

Sango knelt down by her friend and gasped. "Guys- I can't feel Kagome's pulse! I don't think she's breathing and there's blood over her finger."

"Is she going to die?" Shippo asked, looking like he was about to cry at any second.

"I'm sure Kagome's going to be fine," Miroku reassured them.

"Just to be safe though, I think we should head back to Kaede's," Sango chimed in.

Inuyasha carefully picked up Kagome and started running toward the opposite direction in which they were all supposed to be heading in, if they were to ever catch up to Naraku. He voiced this complaint to the others following him, but all he got in reply was Sango's anger at him not caring at all what happened to Kagome- which he wanted to say wasn't true, but decided against speaking anything. He wasn't one for parading his feelings around for the world's acknowledgment and just because Kagome became sick didn't give him any reason to start being different now.

They all got back to Kaede's pretty quickly, much to the annoyance of the old priestess, who reminded them that they had just barely left her over two hours ago. How could they possibly have gotten into trouble this quickly? But, nevertheless, she worked diligently to make up a cot for Kagome and to cool down the girl's fever that seemed to overpower her at an alarmingly rate.

The sun passed down into the horizon and the land was swept into a cool darkness. But inside a plain hut, the tension of its habitants had risen steadily. They were unexpectedly plunged into fear in less than a few hours' time.

"HOW can you not know what's happening to Kagome?" Inuyasha almost screamed, getting frustrated at himself for not noticing anything sooner, at Kagome for contracting this thing which she had, at Naraku for being so close to catch, and yet so far, getting frustrated with it all.

"Inuyasha, I'm not a miracle worker." Kaede calmly said. "Why don't you tell me what happened, so I can get some clue as to what's making her sick?"

"We told you all we know, you old hag."

"So it seems that whatever had made her bleed is the cause of her sickness." Miroku concluded.

Inuyasha stormed out of the hut and everyone looked over at the sick girl, who seemed to be having a restless sleep.

Sango whispered to Miroku, "What are we going to do?"

The monk only shrugged, being at a loss himself.

The next several days passed with the same results as days that came before- Kagome not getting any better, but seeming to get a lot worse, and the group getting edgier. Inuyasha, as had become his ritual, was sitting up in the canopy of trees to seek his solace. This night was to be different though...

He sat up straighter and sniffed. There was something different in the air. He jumped down from his place in the trees just as a wavy blanket of dark smoke appeared.

"Naraku." He said with malice.

"Hello Inuyasha. I hope I came at a good time." Naraku chuckled evilly for a moment.

"Naraku, what do you want?" He snarled, getting his sword ready.

"I came to make a compromise: you give me all the shards you have...and I'll give you the antidote." He smiled broadly.

"What are you talking about?" But as soon as Inuyasha said the words, everything clicked in his brain. He yelled at himself briefly for not thinking of accusing Naraku sooner.

"So what'll it be? Will you hand over those shards or will you let your precious human die?"

Miroku, Sango, and Kaede came out, sensing that Naraku had come. Everything seemed to stop moving...and Inuyasha had to stop and think about this proposal for a second. But only for a second...And then Naraku took out a small bottle of black liquid and set it down in the middle between them.

There was really only one thing he could do...He fingered the bottle of shards Kagome had kept safe for all this time...and threw them angrily in Naraku's direction.

Naraku stretched out one pale arm and caught the bottle smoothly. He laughed manically and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Inuyasha stormed up his tree and huffed.

And, everything was all right for the time being and everyone not Inuyasha was glad at the happy turn their seemingly despair situation had taken.


End file.
